1. Area of Invention
The invention relates to a children""s toy for the production of bubbles produced from a soap-like solution.
2. Prior Art
This invention relates to the field of bubble blowing devices that have been popular as children""s toys for many years. More particularly, this invention constitutes an improvement of my U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,565 (1984) entitled Bubble-Blowing Device with Varying Airflow Pressure. The efficiency or effectiveness of devices of this type is a function of the rate at which bubbles can be made and the quality of the bubble solution itself. These factors are in turn a function of more technical considerations, these including that of how fast and how much air the user may blow into the bubble film, the rate impact of the air against the bubble film, and the rate of re-iteration or re-dipping of a bubble producing aperture of the device within a bubble solution reservoir thereof. There are, as well, other less direct factors which bear upon the rate and quality of bubble production, these including temperature, humidity, altitude and movement of the ambient air atmosphere into which the bubbles are blown and formed.
In the prior art, particularly inclusive of my said 1984 invention, bubble-blowing devices did not include a practical means of producing bubbles of different colors other than through the introduction of pigments of differing colors into the bubble film solution itself. Therefore, there has not existed any practical means of incorporating a color effect into the bubble output of bubble blowing devices that employ soapy-like fluids for the production of the bubble membrane. More generally, there has not existed any generalized means for providing illumination to bubbles of a bubble-blowing device to thereby render a toy in accordance therewith usable by a child at night or in conditions of darkness, as well as during the day. Further, there has not existed in the art the incorporation of a voice chip or sound capability that attempts to add a dimension of reality to the design concept of bubble blowing devices of the present kind. These and other areas of interest in the art are addressed in the present invention.
The invention comprises a bubble-blowing device having a reservoir of soapy-like fluid, a rotor with apertures rotating downwardly in a trigger controllable manner into said fluid and then advanced upwardly to a discharge position. There is also provided a special purpose electric fan or blower, the operation of which is synchronized with rotation of said apertured rotor for the directing of a variable velocity flow of air to fluid-filled apertures of said rotor within the device""s discharge area. Actuation by said trigger concurrently actuates said rotor, said special purpose blower, and a multi-colored lens assembly circumferentially surrounding a light source such that a different color of said lens assembly is rotated in front of the light source in synchronization with each rotational advance of the apertured rotor caused by trigger actuation. Thereby, the simultaneous energizing of the fan produces a stream of bubbles from the aperture of the rotor in the discharge position concurrently with an advance of the circumferential lens assembly about the light source in order to thereby generate a different color effect as a function of each new actuation the trigger. There are preferably provided lens regions of three different colors while the bubble fluid holding rotor is typically provided with six apertures. Thereby, providing two sequences of three different colors per sequence when complete rotation of a rotor has been effected as a result of six actuations of the trigger of the bubble blowing device.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide an improved bubble blowing device for children in which color effects are imparted to bubbles as they are ejected from a nozzle of the device.
It is another object to furnish a device of the above type in which multiple effects, inclusive of audio effects, may be synchronized with actuation of the device trigger.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a device of the above type that may be adapted for use in differing conditions of temperature, humidity, altitude and blow velocity.
It is still another object to provide an apparatus of the above type capable of forming and ejecting large numbers of bubbles at a rapid rate.
The above and yet other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the hereinafter set forth Brief Description of the Drawings and Detailed Description of the Invention included herewith.